Paul Askedall


I have met Mr. Voight four times. Each time he remembers me, and he gets nicer each time! I have two photos with him (from 1982 and 1999). In May 1982, while working at Kennedy airport in New York, I had just finished my midnight shift, and headed over to Pan Am terminal upon hearing that they were filming a movie. At first, when I walked over to him, he said "Not now". I thought "Oh great! He's not friendly". But then I noticed why... he was preparing for the scene in Table For Five where he meets his children at the airport, so he was concentrating extremely hard for the scene (This is a very good movie! See it if you haven't already; the director has a cameo... he's one of the crew members on the ship, who wears an eye patch in real life).

I took three photos at first... one from afar as he converses with the crew, one when he's blowdrying his hair (upclose), and one of his chair with his name on it. I stood for a long time (felt like eternity) and listened to the conversation about how he would like to do a Jekyll and Hyde movie. Then all of a sudden, he said, "Okay. I'm ready"! One of the crew took a photo of us (I look dumbfounded, my mouth open)! I thought that would be it, but to my surprise, he started to continue to talk to me and ASK ME questions! He asked what I did! What a great guy! Next year, in 1983, while also working at JFK airport as a representative for a limo company, I had a tip from the other limousine company picking him up that Voight was coming in. I had a friend with me, who waited at the exit from U.S. Customs, with my photo of Voight and me from the year before. My friend came running back, and yelled, "HE'S HERE!" (Later my friend replied that when Voight came out of Customs, accompanied by a beautiful young woman, Voight took the photo from my friend, showed it to his female friend, and said, "I remember him. He was a nice man").

I just caught Jon at his limo as he was getting inside, and I said "Hi. Remember me?" And of course he said "yes" (He had just come from promoting Table For Five in Japan). In March 1987, I attended the Academy Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles, California (sneaked in!; having worked as an usher before, I know ushers can get very busy, so I lucked out when a five people were handing the usher the tickets to the Oscars, and I just "flew" by). I had in my tuxedo, the photo of him from when I met him in 1982, BUT minus me! I had myself cut out! But I had dropped it on the red carpet outside. So I asked this same usher "My wife (I wasn't married) has the tickets and I don't where we are sitting. I dropped pictures for Jon Voight on the carpet". He had me go outside with the manager so I could get back inside (if you watch the videotape of stars arriving and being interviewed, you can see me walk behind Michael J. Fox and Whoopi Goldberg; I had the VCR recording on the timer at home). As you can imagine, I wasn't sitting at all during the ceremony! I did find one seat, the last row in the highest section on the aisle, and told the man the "wife" story. After twenty minutes, I was up, running around for the entire show. I even ran into four men on the staircase who had just won for special effects, and had the chance to hold an actual Oscar!

After the show, I gave Jon the photo, and he asked, "Why did you cut yourself out of the photo?"!, to my surprise! (He signed... again... my Oscar program). He always signs "Blessings! Jon Voight". (I also met at this time, at the bottom of the stage, William Hurt and Anjelica Huston, Donald O'Connor, and even Steven Spielberg up on the stage! But this is another story!) Last but not least, the fourth and latest time, was last fall 1999 (around October/November). He was being honored with an award by a Jewish organization, here in Huntington, Long Island, New York. I again prepared all four photos from 1982 in a frame.


Please let Paul know what you thought of his amazing encouters with Jon Voight!!